Couldn’t wait to see what the Government Internet Service Provider (GISP) was about so at first opportunity I visited them at their 2009 ICT Africa stand . I was surprised (they admitted everyone was) to learn these guys have been operating since 1998. Understandably though, exclusively serving government ministries and departments (parastatals too they say) could explain GISP’s obscurity.
What’s more? They have a website and by its look, it’s been online for a while now. Clicked on a few links and landed on their about us page where they assert their mission so: “to be the sole, efficient, effective and affordable ISP in Zimbabwe Government”. I got the sense.
I was less forgiving though of more errors in the downloads section where a “How to use webmail” manual (picture above) instructs users to “Open a web browser, such as Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer”. Forget that Netscape Communicator died at the end of the year 2000, “Communicator” wasn’t even a browser; it was an application suite with email, and html editor, address book, and Navigator the browser. I used Navigator for a short while myself before the bane of its life, Internet Explorer, pushed it off the earth. Very unkind of GISP to send visitors looking for a browser that doesn’t exist anymore.
The “why should you connect with GISP” and “Browsing the internet” manuals continue the Netscape Navigator jabber. I’d have easily brushed all this off as an outdated downloads section if it wasn’t for an “Outlook” manual that talks about Outlook 2007. Somebody is indeed updating this section and they decided to keep the Netscape stuff there. I wonder what browser they’re using.
GISP, please sort this out, it doesn’t speak well of our beloved government. An option would be doing away with the downloads section altogether.
why should you connect with GISP.pdf (89 KB)
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